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July 24, 2009

It's Aloha Friday! And A Spin Cycle!

(Editor's Note: Anyone who's a fan of Psuedonymous High School Teacher knows why she has so many followers. Her stories are interesting, eloquent, and approachable. You WANT to get to know her. Plus, she lives in paradise, people! Every time I see any pictures of the island of Oahu on Pseudo's site, I am transported back to the year 2000 when John and I, a year into our relationship, boarded a plane and frolicked in the Land of the Lei for a solid week. She mentioned recently that she was getting a little bit of rock fever, something my sister suffered from toward the end of her 3 years in Hawaii, so I asked her to come over to the Eastern Seaboard for a bit and take over Sprite's Keeper while I'm out of town. (I did take into account the possible culture shock of going from island to mainland and reminded her that Florida is a peninsula, which is technically an island with an escape route.) Little did I know, she's been here before..)

Spin Cycle: Vacation

I know, I know, Hawaii. Who needs a vacation when you live at a destination spot for other people’s vacations? But there’s more to it than that.

For one, I moved to Hawaii when I was 24; therefore, 99.9% of the time I get off the rock, I tend to go to California and visit family. I was just talking about this the other day with a friend, how when you move far away from home, it can mean you rarely get a chance to travel to places you have never been. Not much chance to play Dora the Explorer.

And another thing. Hawaii is a very expensive place to live. Especially as a family. The cost of living is so high we feel extremely fortunate that we were able to buy a house. The only way we can afford college for our kids without school loans is for them to go to the University of Hawaii and to live at home, commuting 50 miles round trip everyday to attend classes. For now it is just our daughter, but our son is going to be a senior next year, so the following year we will have both kids in college. We’re keeping our fingers crossed on some scholarships, but are preparing for the worst.

Which means, no travel plans on the table anytime soon.

And finally, the hardest part about living on a small island, smack dab in the middle of the Pacific? One of my all time favorite things in the world is a road trip. When I was growing up, our family took off on the road for three weeks every summer. Through the eyes of these road trips, I was able to see the entire western United States and Canada. There’s little I enjoy better than blasting along an unknown highway, traveling through small towns, eating in diners, and listening to road music. Oh! And car games! Or just daydreaming out the window. Ahhh.

But this post for Jen isn’t actually about my childhood road trips, so I best get to the point.

It’s about the vacation we had two years ago.

For my daughter’s graduation from high school, she did not want a grad party (big thing over here), and she did not want a present. What she wanted was a family vacation to NYC. Daughter is a big time theatre kid and was getting ready to start UH as a music major. She wanted to go to NYC and see a couple Broadway plays.

She wanted the whole family to go and to have a "real vacation."

So we did. Despite the fact that I was just six months out of breast cancer treatments.

Despite the fact that we had little money, due to the six months I had been off work as well as the doctor’s bills.

Or maybe because of all this, we went for it. Spent what little money we had and charged the rest (still paying it off….).

For the family vacation of a lifetime.

Now, my younger sister had moved to Florida two years before and I figured as long as we were on the East Coast we should get down to visit her.

So.

The trip turned into Boston, NYC, and D.C. by trains and subways. Renting a car in D.C. and driving to Savannah, where we stayed for two nights; then on to St John’s Florida.

Since Jen lives in Florida, I thought I’d focus on this part of the trip.

For one, we fell in love with Florida. It’s a lot like Hawaii, but the difference in the cost of living is huge. My sister and her family bought a home twice as nice as ours for half of what we could sell our house for.

Her house sits in the middle of a quarter acre (we have a condo size square of backyard and zero lot lines). She has a huge pool and a jacuzzi in her backyard and still has more backyard than most people I know. Her lot is surrounded with trees that have Spanish moss hanging down and this really sets the mood. My sis and her husband are really into barbequing and have three barbeques. I’d tell you what they are, but am not savvy enough to remember, but I know one was a smoker. Another one had a wheel thingy that made the grill go up and down.

The first night we stayed there, while my BIL worked the grill and had a beer with hubs, Son and Nephew canon balled into the pool. The jacuzzi has a CD player, and my sis put in the soundtrack to Cold Mountain, to set the southern mood. Sis, Daughter, and I lolled around the jacuzzi, looking up at the Spanish moss hanging over our heads, my sis and I drinking lovely cocktail concoctions and Daughter sipping sweet tea.

The sun set at after 9 PM, while we ate our BBQ in wet suits at the patio table.

Like I said, we fell in love with Florida.

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Okay, here are the other Vacation Spinners of the week! (If I'm not able to update until Sunday, I'm sorry!)

Comments

I think I would fall in love with that part of Florida too. I live in the part of Florida that is so south that its almost North again. Not much to love tree-wise down here. Unless you love scrubby palms? We have lots of those.

I love Spanish moss and we usually have a lot of it around here. Senor Hurricane Ike took all our Spanish moss down. It will come back, hopefully soon. Next vacation you could come here. I have a big house.

Great post! Love that you guys just went for it with the family vacation. We only get so much time with these kids after a certain age. My mom lives in Fla, and they all freak out that the spanish moss trees are gonna ruin their plumbing or fall on their house in a hurricane. They hate them. Drives me crazy; I think they're so beautiful.
I can relate to a lot of your island woes; makes me happy I can do a roadtrip after only a 40 min ferry ride...

Now, now, you know your sister should have bought a house in Savannah where the Spanish moss is REALLY gorgeous...instead of hiking on down to Florida, which is not even a part of the south; the REAL south, that is!

Wow, that is a vacation of a life time. Living where you do I am sure it is worth it except for the fact you can't be around family so much.. might be a good thing..sometimes LOL but I don't think I could do it. Florida, is beautiful, lived in Destin, Florida for almost 12 years myself. I came home because of my moms health. I can go to Florida any time I want I still have friends there and it's only 3 hours away. But, I only have ONE mom, so my duty is here for now. Wonderful stories I love reading your blog and host spots :-)

I had heard the cost of living there was astronomical. I never really thought that those living in paradise might actually like to go on vacation away from that paradise sometimes. Makes sense, kinda. ;)